[shifuimam]

Apparently in the past hour or so, Comcast switched our area over to their all-new DNS servers, which hijack your browser whenever you try to go to a URL that doesn't exist. I much prefer Firefox's plain old "page not found" to some BS Yahoo-powered search page Comcast forces me onto. According to Slashdot, they started doing this in trial markets at the beginning of July.

I do not understand why ISPs do this. 99% of the time, the URL is wrong because of a typo, not because someone doesn't know what they're looking for. Plus, by Comcast hijacking invalid URLs to their own search page, they can now log when you put in a nonexistent URL, and keep an eye on it in case they decide to domain park it so that real people can't get to it without paying an exorbitant fee.

That's pretty damn Comcastic, if you ask me.

Anyhow, if you're on Comcast and have recently noticed this awesome "enhancement" to your service, a quick Google gave me a URL for their opt-out page.

https://dns-opt-out.comcast.net/

[turtle777]

OpenDNS, FTW

-t

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Rogers in Canada does this as well. Incredibly annoying.

greg

[Jim Paradise]

Edit.

[lexapro]

OpenDNS! I love it!

[Laminar]

Mediacom does this to me. Their Opt-Out link does nothing, I've tried numerous times.

[RAILhead]

Whoa -- never heard of OpenDNS until now! Thanks for the tip-off!

Now I just have to add all the freakin' ad banner domains...

[starman]

There's a "Disable This Service" link right on that page. You had to Google for an answer?

[residentEvil]

i use level 3 dns servers for my home ISP; much faster than OpenDNS ones are (for me)...any of the following will work just fine...look for the closes one in you area for quicker response (do some traceroutes/pings to find the quickest ones). you only need to pick two...i use .2 and .4

4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.3
4.2.2.4
4.2.2.5
4.2.2.6

[Chongo]

I get a similar page from Qwest, but not all the time.

[Dakar V]

Verizon did this **** to me, that I couldn't type "macnn" into the address bar without it being sent to some Verizon search rather than just properly resolving to "macnn.com"

I located the opt out on their pages, but it turned out it wasn't an opt-out so much as a "here, you have to manually change your DNS server suffix from .14 to .12." Which is fantastic because you then have to pull your router off the modem and jack directly in so you can figure out what the hell your DNS numbers are (How is there no software solution to this? Or at least an obvious one).

[0157988944]

OpenDNS just sends you to their own page in case of a typo. It does add .coms though so thats nice.

[Thorzdad]

I'd not heard of Level 3 until I got the email from Comcast this morning about their new revenue enhancement "consumer service" and did little research. I did a ping for each of the Level 3 IPs and was amazed at the speed. Each of them averaged about 14ms. I think I've found a new DNS service.

Just for fun, I decided to see if Comcast already had their hijacker in place in my area. So, I typed-in "www.appple.com" in Firefox. Oddly, that went straight to an Amazon page with a lot of Apple goods on it. Weird.

[Snow-i]

Dear Comcast Customer,

At Comcast, we’re constantly looking to deliver a better high-speed
Internet and online search experience. That’s why we’re introducing
Domain Helper to help you find the sites you want when you mistype a
Web site address in your Web browser.

You’ll notice this service when you mistype a Web site address, like
"http://www.comtcas.com" instead of "http://www.comcast.com."
Instead of receiving an error page that the Web site does not exist, this
new service will provide you with a Web page of suggestions and links to
get you back on track quickly and help you find what you need faster.

We also understand that sometimes customers want to surf their own way, without the assistance of Domain Helper, so we also offer an easy way to opt-out when you receive the suggestion Web page. You can also opt out by visiting the opt-out page now.
https://dns-opt-out.comcast.net now)

We hope you find this to be a valuable tool when you need it.

Sincerely,

Comcast

Comcast.net: News, Sports, Video, TV listings, Email and more!


This is a service-related email. Comcast will occasionally send you service-related emails to inform you of service upgrades or new benefits to your Comcast High-Speed Internet service.

Copyright 2009. Comcast. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

Comcast respects your privacy. For a complete description of our privacy policy visit Comcast.net Privacy Policy.

Comcast
One Comcast Center, 10th Floor
1701 JFK Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19103-2838

You can still opt out. But hey, why not take revenue from mistyped URLs? Then maybe the cable bill won't go up so fast.

[stevesnj]

Just another way for ISP's to track where you want to surf!

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Snow-i 

You can still opt out. But hey, why not take revenue from mistyped URLs? Then maybe the cable bill won't go up so fast.

I have BrightHouse (TimeWarner spin off) and their opt out doesn't work. I've opted out repeatedly, but I keep getting sent to their page when DNS fails.

[Snow-i]

Call them and don't hang up until the issue is resolved.
(leave yourself a couple of hours).

[abbaZaba]

Originally Posted by residentEvil 

i use level 3 dns servers for my home ISP; much faster than OpenDNS ones are (for me)...any of the following will work just fine...look for the closes one in you area for quicker response (do some traceroutes/pings to find the quickest ones). you only need to pick two...i use .2 and .4

4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.3
4.2.2.4
4.2.2.5
4.2.2.6

maybe you know this, but those are Verizon's DNS servers

I have been using OpenDNS for about a year and it's much better than comcast's default DNS servers

[residentEvil]

Originally Posted by abbaZaba 

maybe you know this, but those are Verizon's DNS servers

I have been using OpenDNS for about a year and it's much better than comcast's default DNS servers

The IP's belong to, owned by, etc...however you want to say it, to Level 3 Communication; always have been, always will be. Not Verizon.

OrgName: Level 3 Communications, Inc.
OrgID: LVLT
Address: 1025 Eldorado Blvd.
City: Broomfield
StateProv: CO
PostalCode: 80021
Country: US

NetRange: 4.0.0.0 - 4.255.255.255
CIDR: 4.0.0.0/8
NetName: LVLT-ORG-4-8
NetHandle: NET-4-0-0-0-1
Parent:
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.LEVEL3.NET
NameServer: NS2.LEVEL3.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 1992-12-01
Updated: 2009-06-19

[ort888]

This crap just started for me today. (Charter in St. Louis)

Yesterday I could type "apple" into my browser and it would go to Apple.com. Now when I type "apple" it ever so momentarily hits a charter/yahoo page and then redirects me to the Apple store with all of their info in place so they can profit off of me.

I figured out how to opt-out... but now typing "apple" takes me to a "page cannot be displayed" page. How can I get it so that typing "apple" takes me to apple.com?

I went to that opendns site and put their setting into my router but it didn't change anything. I still seem to be going to the charter page when I mistype something.

This is so frustrating.

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by ort888 

I went to that opendns site and put their setting into my router but it didn't change anything. I still seem to be going to the charter page when I mistype something.

This is so frustrating.

You should change them on your Mac too. It's an option in network settings > [your adapter] > advanced.

[ort888]

That seems like it should have been obvious... and it worked. Thank you!!!!

AND SCREW YOU CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS!

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

OpenDNS, FTW

-t

Don't they do the same thing, though? When I used OpenDNS, invalid DNS names used to go to some search page, just like Comcast. Sure, I was able to turn it off in the preferences, but since they used your IP to tell who you are, every time my dynamic IP changed I'd be back to the default of the stupid search page again.

[shifuimam]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

You should change them on your Mac too. It's an option in network settings > [your adapter] > advanced.

That just doesn't make any sense - the router generally gives its own DNS IP(s) to clients connected to it, which it then translates into the DNS entries on the router's Internet connection.

It seems like OS X has more DNS problems than Windows, at least in my experience. My PowerMac's DNS (and network connection in general) is wildly unpredictable.

[Cold Warrior]

OS X will use its manually-input DNS before router- or DHCP-supplied DNS. You may want to flush your dns cache on your powermac if you're still having issues.

[Rumor]

I just switched over to OpenDNS, seems marginally faster, but I also changed my wireless encryption from WEP to WPA2.